29.02.2024

INDUSTRIAL MUNICIPALITIES LEAD IN THE CREATION OF NEW EMPLOYMENT

And in 2022, the recovery of regional labor markets is uneven, with more than two-thirds of municipalities employing people remaining below the record levels of 2019. The most serious delays are seen in municipalities with a focus on the local economy in tourism and in those with the most significant demographic problems, while the industrial regions manage to create new jobs the fastest.

According to the latest data for 2022, the number of employed people in the country as a whole reaches 2.27 million people - a visible increase compared to the "bottom" of the labor market in 2020, when their number had dropped to 2.2 million , but still far from the record of 2019, when 2.32 million people were employed.

The largest number is in the capital - 768 thousand people, followed by Plovdiv with 143 thousand people and Varna with 124 thousand. There are a total of 16 municipalities with over 20,000 employees. There are 80 municipalities with less than 1,000 employees compared to 82 a year earlier, and those with less than 2,000 - 135, or half of all. As expected, given their large population, all municipalities in the top twenty are regional centers.

The relative share of the employed is a sign of the activity and dynamism of the local labor markets. Referred to the population aged 15 and over (which also includes people of retirement age), the largest share of employed people is in small industrial municipalities - Devnya (94%), Sopot (88%), Chelopech (84%), as the high shares reflect the fact that these municipalities attract a lot of labor from neighboring municipalities.

The top five is completed by the energy center Radnevo (74%) and the capital (70%). In as many as 100 municipalities, however, the share of employed people is below 20% - this reflects both relatively low economic activity and weak local labor markets, as well as the influence of nearby strong economic centers. Only a year ago, however, their number was 131, which clearly points to shaking off the effect of the pandemic and restrictions.

As the labor market recovery appears to be over, at least in the leading municipal economies, it is worth comparing the number of people employed in 2019, a record for the labor market in many places. In 178 municipalities, there is a decrease in the number of employees, and this is most visible in Varna (-5.1 thousand workers), Nessebar (-3.3 thousand workers), Kazanlak (-3 thousand workers), Burgas (-2, 5 thousand workers).

By all accounts, the declines are mostly related to the inability of the tourism industry to restore employment to pre-crisis levels.

In relative terms, small municipalities such as Nikola Kozlevo (-33%), Georgi Damyanovo (-31%), Koprivshtitsa and Ivaylovgrad (-24%) are losing the most employees, and for many of them the reasons for this are mainly demographic. as a result of the rapid decline of the working-age population.

However, a considerable number of municipalities have managed to create new jobs and exceed their pre-crisis employment, as in Maritsa the number of employees has increased by 1.7 thousand people, in Rodopi - by 1.5 thousand people, in Bozhurishte - by over 900 people. Here, too, the biggest increases are in relatively small municipalities, among them Kovachevtsi (64%) and Novo Selo (53%).

There are several clusters of municipalities with growth in employment, most visibly in the industrial peripheries of Sofia and Plovdiv. There, declines in the pandemic years have been weaker, and labor demand far outstrips supply, meaning the upward trend in employment there is likely to be more durable.